So, next up on the Mario series for the challenge, I decided I wanted to quickly run through a game that I had heard a lot about, especially since it had dropped on the Game Boy Online service when it launched. So with that, I decided to play Super Mario Land 2.

Famous for being probably the most bizarre Mario game until Super Mario Wonder would later come and dethrone it so many years later, Super Mario Land 2 is a strange half-step towards traditional Mario gameplay, and doing it's own thing. While we have a map system that's very similar to Mario World, and the gameplay is mostly similar to other games, especially in comparison to Mario Land 1, there's a lot of strange oddities about how this game opts to do things.

For a start, there's absolutely nothing traditional here outside of the enemies. There's no Luigi, no princesses, Peach, Daisy or otherwise, and the villain is now the mainstay - Wario, but at the time, was a new villain who acted as Mario's evil doppleganger. Hell, Mario must've been saving all those coins because he outright bought a island, built a castle, and became the ruler before Wario would brainwash the inhabitants to be loyal to him, rather than this game taking place in the Mushroom Kingdom. 

As such, the worlds are very out there for a Mario game, featuring such worlds as a world inside a gigantic sea turtle. A world that takes place within a big Mario robot that Mario has to scale. A tree where Mario has to climb up and take on the birds at the top. Even a space world that brings Mario into outer space, Scrooge McDuck style, and years before there was any galaxies out there for him to run around and collect Power Stars.

The gameplay for a Game Boy adaption of the series is honestly very good. You see Mario Land 1 and it's incredibly primitive and basic, even compared to something like the original Super Mario Bros. This game however is trying to be something much more akin to Super Mario Bros 3 in terms of sprite detail, and so on, giving it a lot more reason for visiting it on it's own terms, compared to Mario Land 1 just feeling like a compromised Super Mario Bros. 

Despite how accurate it is to the gameplay and spirit of Mario however - as I said, even the visuals and gameplay is weird at points. Things like the Fire Flower is present, but has a completely different design with a feather in Mario's cap, as opposed to Mario changing colour (granted, likely because of the GB's greyscale screen), a bunny ears power-up that acts as a upgraded tanooki suit in terms of gliding potential. Coins are a actual currency here where you can spend them for a chance at gaining extra lives, and there's even mini-games for beating levels in a certain way, in a similar vain to Kirby's minigames.

That's also not to mention our friend Wario here, who despite being introduced in this game has a lot of earlier and weirdest aspects to him. In the game itself, he's like double Super Mario's size, and generally looks more like a smirking goblin than the Wario we know, although of course, the art would at least get a lot more closer to that. I think it's interesting how this prototype Wario didn't really have a personality nailed down yet though. He takes over Mario's castle, sure - but the commercial plays him off like a power-mad despot, while the game itself makes him look more like a grinning doofus who is a lot more like Mario's evil doppleganger in his fight than anything else. It would really be later games, and particularly Wario Land that really adds in the aspects to Wario we would all come to know him for.

The boss fights is something I do really like in this game, the fights themselves all being fairly unique with completely different bosses compared to previous games just being fights with Bowser, Boom-Boom, or the Koopalings. It reminds me a lot of Mario Madness, in that regard. Even the final boss against Wario is pretty unique, since it's a fight where he uses your power ups against you, really selling the evil copy aspect of Wario here. 

Overall, I do have to admit I feel Mario Land 2 is a little overhyped. I wouldn't really class it as one of the absolute best of the series, and I do think it has some problems like the screen crunch, and the run-time not being particularly long either. But I do think it should still really be appreciated for what it is. It's one of the most creative and unique Mario games we've seen since the 90s, and the fact it took until Wonder to really top it says a lot. For a Game Boy game, it's legitimately impressive how good the sprite work and graphics is, and how well they were able to replicate the gameplay of later 2D Mario games on a handheld like the Game Boy. Not to mention the introduction of one of the most iconic Mario baddies of all time. It's a bit dated at this point, but it's readily available on the GB Online service. I definitely think it's worth giving a shot at least once to experience the creativity and to see Wario's roots.